Franklin Taggart's Virtual Coffee Break

This thing called Influencer Marketing isn't a new idea. Advertisers have been using influential spokespeople for at least a few centuries. And marketing itself is pretty much just influencing people, so this phenomenon of the influencer marketer is an interesting one. I have a client who aspires to this but has a misunderstanding about what it takes to build a following and become influential. He...

Do we really need Daylight Savings Time anymore? After a night of spotty sleep, I woke up disoriented and thinking I was late for a guitar lesson I was teaching this morning. It all worked out, but I got to thinking while I walked the dog. I've let go of some old habits in recent years that used to serve me pretty well but don't now. It just became apparent that I didn't need to do things that way...

When people are considering starting a creative career, one of the first questions they ask is "When should I start charging money for my work?" This is a great question. And I think it's worth understanding that there are some people who are so excited about their newfound talent that they rush into trying to make a living from their creative work before they're ready. In this Coffee Break, I sha...

If you or your business were faced with an unexpected calamity like an accident, fire, or lawsuit, would you have the protection you need to get through it with the least amount of difficulty? Many business owners don't realize they need a few different kinds of insurance protection so they may be underinsured and in some cases, they have no coverage at all. Danielle Lammon is a licensed insurance...

If you're still hung up on identifying your ideal client, why don't you put that idea aside for a minute and try something different - talking to strangers. Your parents may have told you to avoid this activity when you were young, but by now you should be able to find at least one person you don't know who is willing to talk with you for a few minutes. The point is that you could be spending all...

Would it be easier to find Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster than to find your ideal client, customer, or audience? The trouble with ideals is that they are difficult, if not impossible to reach. In this Coffee Break, I'd like you to think differently about the people you want to make a difference for. If you're struggling to identify an ideal client, you may just not have the experience yet to rec...

Today I helped a couple of people build content marketing channels to support their businesses. One started a blog, the other started a combination of YouTube and podcast channels. The person who was starting the blog mentioned that she had done some Google searches about starting a blog and had been getting spammy email and social media ads that were trying to sell her a $2000 online course for s...

A client asked me today how she can become a better communicator in her marketing and she was surprised at my answer. Yes, there is an art and science of marketing communication. There's a reason that great copywriters like my favorite, Laura Belgray get paid a lot of money for their skill, but one of the cornerstones that marketing communication shares with almost every other kind is the ability...

Reflections while driving home from a band rehearsal I had this afternoon. I've played with Paul Chet's bands for over seven years, one of the longest musical relationships I've been a part of in my long and often interrupted career. I was feeling very lucky to have found this group of guys to play with who are some of the finest musicians I've known. But I also realized that one of the things tha...

Since my video two days ago, I've had some other thoughts about what I'd do if I were starting over in business right now. Like I said in the last video, I'm not sure what exactly I'd do differently since the business landscape is so different now than it was then, especially online business.  But I realized there are a few things I would do differently based on my experience. In this Coffee...

If you're ready to expand and scale your business beyond what you're able to do yourself, the first place most consultants will tell you to start is in hiring help. The learning curve and blind spots to this process, especially the first time, can make finding and hiring help a harrowing experience. There are a lot of ways the process can go sideways and leave you and your business in a precarious...

One of the FAQs in my world is what would I do differently if I were starting over in my business. That is an interesting question to consider because if I started over again today, the circumstances, options, and available tools I have now are very different than when I started my earlier careers and businesses. Much of what I've learned in the past twelve years has gone through several cycles of...

I've met many people who want to make all or part of their living doing creative work but they're intimidated by the business part of it. I get it, business can seem like a very big deal with a lot of moving parts and a steep learning curve. But people aren't born good at business. Business is a skillset and skills are learned. Yes, you can have an aptitude for something. I've met people who were...

I've had a few conversations lately with creative people who feel like their work is insignificant in a time when such terrifying events are happening in the world. I have joined them in this feeling. It's hard to think about and talk about things like business and marketing as innocent people fight to defend their homeland while it has been arbitrarily attacked. As these historical events and exa...

The day I became willing to sell used cars was the day I realized that I could sell my music services. How many creative people will gladly take on jobs in retail and in selling other people's stuff instead of selling what they make? It's more common than you might think. The business plan for a creative is simple but not easy - Make it. Show It. Sell it. For most of us, the making is the best par...

Two minutes of silence in solidarity with peaceful people everywhere. (There is nothing wrong with your volume. Sound will return momentarily.)

I looked at the forecast for next week and saw high temps in the 60s starting to show up again. Spring is getting closer! I'm ready to have shoveled my last snow for the year. It also feels like I've come into a Springlike season in my life. The last several years have had a lot of change and grief, along with a lot of reflection and introspection. Some of my limiting beliefs and habits have surfa...

For the self-employed entrepreneur, a sabbatical might be the last thing you think about doing, and if you were to take one, it would probably have an agenda attached. We don't usually just decide to take time off for just being. After the launch of her book, Bursts of Brilliance for a Creative Life, author and publisher Teresa Funke was shown by her assistant that she was juggling the management...

I've been called the king of the one-liners and my humor tends toward the sarcastic and dry side. I'm surprised I haven't been beaten up more. I've also been called hard to get to know and Mister Mystery.  For someone who feels like a good communicator, I still end up making a bad first impression a lot more often than I'd like. This habit of trying to get people to laugh at my sarcastic wit...

A couple of recent conversations have me thinking about the nature of self-discovery. Our individual observations and perceptions are uniquely subjective, even in measurable situations. We each have our own experience of life that can't be easily duplicated or completely understood by anyone else.  This isn't to say that self-discovery doesn't benefit other people. In discovering the 10,000 w...

So you took a great idea and created a way to deliver it, then you built an offer around it and announced it to all the circles you could, tweaking your message as you went...and...crickets? Yeah, sometimes that happens, even to the best sales and marketing gurus.  That doesn't specifically mean that your idea wasn't great. It could be that there was something about the package and offer that...

Do you ever wake up in a funk? I did this morning. I don't know if it was interrupted sleep, lower back pain, a case of the Mondays, or what, but I was in a low state. I've gotten away from the practice of labeling emotions positive or negative. Especially in the case of emotions that are uncomfortable or uneasy, I don't think it's helpful to add another layer of judgment on top of them. A few yea...

I believe we each have our own unique way of influencing other people. One of the benefits of discovering this way, what I call your unique marketing modality, is that it helps lower natural resistance to be more publicly visible and assertive.  Resistance is a natural protective mechanism we all have, and highly sensitive people tend to have it even more acutely than others. While it's not a...

This Coffee Break is for all of us who get to the edge of the diving board and hesitate. We think we can make the jump but there's still a voice inside that tries to convince us we're not ready, this is dangerous, and we may not make it out alive.  I bought my first home recording gear a long time ago. The thing I remember most is looking at it and then finding out that I "needed" something e...

If you’ve been thinking about starting a podcast, you’ll get a lot from my guest today, Jürgen Strauss. Dr. Strauss is a podcaster, speaker, podcast strategist, marketing strategist, and connector of Amazing Humans. His business, Innovabiz, partners with thought leaders to enable them to build sustainable visibility, professional credibility, and a deep connection with their dream clients. Their p...